The above noted parent applications, the details of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto, deal with various techniques for the total containment welding of plastic tubes where no contaminants can enter or leave the tube lumen. In general, the welding techniques involve an axially aligned, melt/wipe process where the ends of two tube sections are melted to be rendered into a molten state and then pressed together to become integral.
The above techniques are particularly desirable for widespread uses including CAPD, blood processing and other techniques where it is necessary to replace used consumables. In such practices, it is necessary to cut the tube leading from the used bag to the patient and then weld a new tube section from a fresh bag to the tube section leading from the patient. It would be desirable if the tube cutting or disconnect procedure and the tube joining or connect procedure could be made as simple as possible in order to avoid difficulties in performing these procedures.